Noted writer to read at Everett library event

When you team up a Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist with one of the most renowned photographers in Pacific Northwest history, you get an adventure story.

That story turned into the book “The Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis.”

The book is written by Seattle-based journalist Timothy Egan, who will read excerpts at a Friends of the Everett Public Library literary event.

The event is scheduled for 7 p.m. April 6 at the Everett Performing Arts Center, 2710 Wetmore Ave., Everett.

It’s free and open to the public. Donations will be accepted to support the annual children’s Summer Reading Program.

Books and wine will be for sale. There will also be a question-and-answer session with National Public Radio commentator, author and librarian Nancy Pearl, known for her spots on NPR’s “Morning Edition” and her best-selling book “Book Lust.”

Egan follows the story of Curtis, a Seattle resident and portrait photographer of great acclaim (President Theodore Roosevelt paid him to photograph his daughter’s wedding).

Though his renown was well-established, Curtis decided in 1900 to pursue his life’s work: to photograph all the intact Native American tribes left in North America.

After 30 years, Curtis completed the 20-volume set, “The North American Indian,” which left him broke and divorced.

Egan is sympathetic to Curtis’ plight in this journey and with journalistic detail, Egan delivers not just an adventure story but a biography as well.